This invention relates to pontoon boats, and to difficulties associated with typical widths of pontoon boats.
Pontoon boats are widely employed both as pleasure craft and as work barges.
Typically, such vessels employ a deck disposed generally between a pair of buoyant hull members such as pontoons. The deck area is preferably constructed as large as possible to provide optimum accommodation for people and/or equipment. Desired length of the vessel can generally be accommodated as needed.
However, if the vessel must be transported on the highway, the magnitude of the width can be limited by limits on the width of a vehicle which can be legally transported on the road. In addition, although the weight of the boat is typically quite modest, the length and width dimensions of the boat can require a fairly large-dimension trailer. Typically, especially with respect to pleasure vessels, vehicle width limits on the roads operate as a functional limit of the widths to which such boats are built.
Even given the above criteria regarding width limits of vehicles on roads, pontoon boats typically require use of trailers specially designed for pontoon boats, which makes such trailers especially costly, and of limited use. Accordingly, it is common practice for a pontoon boat owner to not purchase a trailer for the boat, but to rely on marina service organizations or other service operators to trailer the boat to a launch location at the beginning of a boating season and to remove the boat from the water when the boating season is over. As a result, use of the pontoon boat is commonly limited to a single body of water in a given season. Further, since the boat is left in the water the entire season, plant life such as algae or mussels readily attach themselves to the vessel thereby hindering speed of the vessel, and adding to the periodic task of cleaning the hull e.g. at the end of the boating season.
In order to solve the trailering problem, it is known to convert a pontoon boat from an operating configuration to a reduced-width configuration. However, no such configuration is known to the inventor herein which provides readily usable conversion of the boat from the operating configuration to the reduced-width configuration wherein the outboard motor can appropriately be left mounted to the boat motor mount during launching, loading, and trailering of the boat.
It is an object of the invention to provide a multiple hull boat, such as a pontoon boat which has a longitudinally extending hinge at a mid-section of the boat, wherein jamb plates adjacent the hinge support the boat at the hinge, and wherein the hulls are secured to deck members proximate the outer sides of the deck members.
It is another object of the invention to provide a multiple hull boat hinged at a mid-section wherein the boat is free from superstructure supporting the deck members proximate the inner sides of the deck members.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a multiple hull boat hinged at a mid-section wherein the design and configuration, structure, strength, and rigidity, of hinge and jamb plates can bear all vertical forces normally imposed on the hinge area of the boat.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a multiple hull boat wherein bending resistance of jamb plates proximate a longitudinally-extending hinge, at bottom edges of the jamb plates, is greater than respective bending resistances at bottom edges of front and rear ends and outer sides, of the deck members.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a multiple hull boat wherein the deck members approximate an inverted xe2x80x9cVxe2x80x9d when the boat is folded.
A further object of the invention is to provide a multiple hull boat having a motor mount opening interrupting regular spacing of cross-members of the boat and wherein the motor mount opening has sides disposed inwardly of the outer sides of the deck.
A further object is to provide a motor mount which is mounted at locations displaced frontwardly of the rear of the deck members, and which maintains horizontal orientation of the motor mount when the boat is converted to a folded configuration.
Another object is to provide a folding multiple hull boat which includes a motor mount which transfers forward thrust from an outboard motor to cross-members disposed frontwardly of the rear ends of the deck members by at least one regular interval of cross-members of the boat.
Yet another object is to provide a folding multiple hull boat wherein the motor mount rises as the deck members extend upwardly when boat is being converted to the folded configuration.
A further object is to provide a folding multiple hull boat which includes a retraction device which has a line of retractive action passing below the hinge, and which, when converting the boat from the operating configuration to the folded configuration, thus exerts an upward vector sufficient to initiate upward movement of inner sides of deck at the hinge.
This invention contemplates a folding pontoon boat which can be folded to a first lesser width for transport or storage and which can be unfolded to an operating configuration for use on the water. The boat can be launched in the folded configuration, unfolded on the water, and subsequently refolded to the reduced-width configuration on the water prior to loading the boat on a trailer for transport from the water to another location.
In a typical embodiment, the boat comprises first and second elongate pontoons, each having a front end and a rear end; first and second deck members, each having a front end and a rear end, a bottom, a top, an inner side, and an outer side, each inner side having a top edge disposed toward the top of the respective deck member and a bottom edge disposed toward the bottom of the respective deck member. The front and rear ends of the first deck member are aligned with the respective front and rear ends of the first pontoon. The front and rear ends of the second deck member are aligned with the respective front and rear ends of the second pontoon. The first pontoon is secured to the first deck member proximate the outer side of the first deck member and thereby defines a first boat section. The second pontoon is secured to the second deck member proximate the outer side of the second deck member and thereby defines a second boat section. First and second jamb plates are secured to the respective first and second deck members at the inner sides of the deck members. The boat further comprises a hinge hingedly connecting the inner sides of the first and second deck members to each other thereby to join the first and second boat sections to each other for pivotation of the first and second boat sections with respect to each other, between an operating configuration wherein the first and second elongate pontoons are spaced at a first relatively greater distance from each other and the first and second deck members, in combination, define a deck of the folding pontoon boat, having a common top surface extending between the respective outer sides of the first and second deck members and between front and rear ends of the first and second deck members, and wherein the outer sides of the first and second deck members comprise an outer edge of the deck, and a folded configuration wherein the first and second elongate pontoons are spaced proximate each other and the first and second deck members extend upwardly toward the respective inner sides.
In preferred embodiments, the pontoons are non-pivotally secured to the respective deck members.
In other embodiments, the pontoons are fixedly secured to the respective deck members.
In the folded configuration, the pontoons are spaced no more than about 6 inches from each other, preferably no more than about 3 inches from each other, more preferably about 1 inch from each other.
Preferably, the hinge connects the inner sides of the first and second deck members to each other at the respective bottom edges of the inner sides.
In preferred embodiments, the pontoons fold and rotate with the deck members thereby to bring lower portions of the pontoons into facing relationship with each other.
Preferred embodiments of the boat include a retraction device such as a hydraulic cylinder. A first end of the cylinder is mounted to one of the first pontoon or the first deck member. The second end of the cylinder is mounted to one of the second pontoon or the second deck member. The retraction device has a line of retraction action passing below the hinge, whereby a line of force acting through the retraction device when the boat is in the operating configuration exerts an upward vector on the deck members sufficient to readily initiate upward movement of the inner sides of the deck members.
Preferred embodiments of boats of the invention include a motor mount which rises, and maintains a substantially constant orientation, when the boat is being converted to the folded configuration.
In typical and preferred embodiments, the boat is free from superstructure above the top of the deck for supporting the deck members proximate the inner sides when the boat is in the operating configuration.
Preferably, the jamb plates are of such design and configuration, and of sufficient structure, strength, and rigidity, to bear all vertical force vectors normally imposed on the deck members proximate the inner sides. Such jamb plates typically have bending resistance capacities, with respect to forces applied at the lower edges of the jamb plates, which are substantially greater than the respective bending resistance capacities at the lower edges of the front and rear ends, and at the outer sides, of the deck members.
In preferred embodiments, when the boat is in the folded configuration, the deck members approximate the shape of an inverted xe2x80x9cVxe2x80x9d, representing an angle having an apex proximate the hinge or jamb plates. Typical angles are about 50 degrees to about 65 degrees. Angles as small as 15 degrees to about 20 degrees are contemplated. Angles as large as 90 degrees are also contemplated. However, in the interest of efficiency, angles of about 60 degrees to about 65 degrees are most preferred.
In preferred embodiments, the deck members each comprise an array of transverse supporting structural cross-members extending along the length of the deck members, and a motor mount opening interrupting the generally regular spacing of the cross-members at the rear portion of the boat. The motor mount opening extends uninterrupted across the hinge line and outwardly from the hinge line to opposing sides of the opening disposed inwardly of the outer sides of the deck members.
In some embodiments, a motor mount is mounted to the deck members at locations at least some of which are displaced frontwardly of the rear ends of the deck members, and the motor mount maintains a substantially constant orientation when the boat is folded into the folded configuration.
Preferably, the motor mount is so designed and configured that forward thrust of an outboard motor mounted to the motor mount is transferred to the cross-members at one or more locations displaced frontwardly of the rear ends of the deck members by at least one of the regular intervals.
Preferably, the motor mount has a motor mounting locus positioned such that the lower drive unit of an outboard motor mounted thereto is positioned rearwardly of the pontoons.
In preferred embodiments, the motor mount comprises suspension arms extending transverse to the longitudinal axis of the boat, the motor mount being mounted to the deck members by a combination of support bars in one of the cross-members and the suspension arms, and cooperating slots in the other of the cross-members and the suspension arms, the slots extending transversely of the longitudinal axis of the boat, the support bars sliding in the slots as the boat is converted between the operating configuration and the folded configuration.
Preferably, the motor mount rises, and thereby lifts a motor mounted to the motor mount, as the boat is being converted to the folded configuration.
In preferred embodiments, the motor mount defines a mounting plate structure oriented for holding an outboard motor thereon in a generally upright configuration for propelling the boat in the operating configuration, and wherein the motor mount maintains the mounting plate structure so oriented for holding the outboard motor in a generally upright configuration when the boat is being converted from the operating configuration to the folded configuration.
Further to preferred embodiments, the motor mount so interfaces with the deck members that the motor mount rises as the deck members are being extended upwardly when the boat is being converted to the folded configuration.
Preferably, the retraction device has a line of retractive action passing below the hinge, whereby a line of force acting through the retraction device when the boat is in the operating configuration exerts an upward vector on the deck members sufficient to readily initiate upward movement of the inner sides of the deck members without mechanical assist from any concurrently-operating lifting structure. The preferred retraction device is a 2-way hydraulic cylinder.
In the alternative, the retraction device can comprise a ratchet and a flexible line, connecting the first and second boat sections to each other through the line of retractive action.